I am happy to see people saying how great Biden's inauguration speech was b/c of his calls for unity. It's a message that definitely matters, and it was foolish of Pres. Trump to frequently focus on the "red vs. blue" divide, despite it being what most people are seemingly focused on.
Still, I find this to be representative of the very thing privileged – mostly white – coastal progressives are stereotypically accused of doing: Selectively focusing on empty words that coddle their sensibilities rather than actions that actually affect lives in a substantial way.
I think it's a mistake to act like this speech is meaningful in any real way. It's barely any different than many of the things Trump said in his own inauguration message about unity, yet you won't find op-eds and viral posts from left-leaning figures praising those moments. They instead focused on what they worried he would do. It's not pessimistic to ignore one speech in favor of history and stated goals.
Ultimately, there will be no unification. There simply can't be, esp. when it comes to policies. It doesn't seem possible to do without true authoritarianism, given how so much of our politics is predicated on values and personality traits. However, it is possible to get back to times when politically motivated violence and vitriol were less pervasive. I definitely want to go back to when people weren't disowning family and friends for political differences on such a notable scale.
But that's not gonna come from Biden, because this division didn't come from Trump. It came from how people used social media and media organizations. Trump was always the result and even catalyst of this division. He was never the cause.
Ever see those "We can disagree about some things but not racism and sexism" types of posts? They're the most manipulative things I've seen, because they usually come from people who believe that your opinions on education, taxes, minimum wage, trade, criminal justice, the environment, infrastructure, labor, and so on make you a racist, sexist, and every other increasingly-meaningless label out there.
That's why unity starts with you. If you're a progressive who really wants to be unified, you don't standby while people from your tribe use fallacious emotional reasoning to label 75 million other people as racists, sexists, Nazis, complicit enablers of domestic terrorism or fascism, and so on. You have to because me trying to curb extremism in Catholics or Muslims isn't as effective if I'm not Catholic or Muslim. Me calling out conservatives or progressives isn't as effective because I'm not conservative or progressive – it's partially why this post is bound to fall on deaf ears. And lest you think I'm speaking only to progressives, know that conservatives labeling 80 million people as baby killers are just as guilty.
Don't post empty words from politicians that even you know aren't going to do anything. Do something. Words matter; actions matter more.